Grant Van Niekerk keeps Butterfly Girl at it to beat Priceless Jewel(outside) in a thriller (Bay Media)
The R150 000 Listed Ladies Mile run at Kenilworth on Saturday produced a thrilling finish with two smart fillies slugging it out all the way to the wire. In the end a weight difference of 8kgs made a telling call and for punters it didn’t end happily with the 14 to 1 Butterfly Girl getting the better of the 6 to 10 favourite, Priceless Jewel.
The Adam Marcus-trained Ashaawes filly Priceless Jewel is one of the most consistent racers around and after her excellent sprint win last time, she was confidently backed to make it a hat-trick after winning the Gr3 Two Oceans Prix Du Cap in February.
Priceless Jewel raced from the front as she always does and all appeared to be going well under Aldo Domeyer until about the 300m marker when they challenged her.
She kept galloping strongly but Butterfly Girl went past her, only for her to come right back as the two went to the wire as one.
The judge called the decision in favour of the Bass filly, and Priceless Jewel may just have fallen prey to the second run after a rest syndrome.
Grant Van Niekerk rode a nice race on the longshot
After all, there is no way that Butterfly Girl should have beaten her, even in receipt of 8kgs.
The Bass filly was patently in under sufferance but registered her second win in a row and appears to be finding some of her earlier better 3yo form, where she ran to as high as a 93. (she ran off a 74 on Saturday).
She was not up to the standard of the 3yo classics last season but has obviously matured.
Grant Van Niekerk rode a good race and despite Priceless Jewel challenging strongly, Butterfly Girl clung on to win by a nose in a time of 101,83 secs.
Jet Supreme improved after showing up prominently for most of the trip and stayed on for third, 1,05 lengths behind the winner.
Butterfly Girl was bred by Gary Player Stud and is a daughter of Jet Master out of the well performed All Fired Up mare, Fire Tread, who won three races when racing for Mike Bass in the Mcgivern silks.
She has won 4 races with 7 places from 22 starts and R290 250.
